Sanford Exempts Hotel From Parking Lot Rule

SANFORD — City commissioners have granted an exemption so the owner of the 100- year-old Florida Hotel does not have to pave the hotel's 11 parking spaces and an alley behind the hotel.

As part of that exemption approved by a 3 to 2 vote Monday night, commissioners voted to require a limestone base under the mulch-covered parking area, installation of a curb on the south side of the property and construction of a sight-proof fence between the hotel at 500 S. Oak Ave. and adjoining property.

Hotel owner Peggy Nestor, 1751 Tippicanoe Trail, Maitland, was given until today by the Sanford Code Enforcement Board to meet city requirements for paved parking and obtain certification that electrical problems had been corrected or face $250 a day in fines.

The board imposed a $25-a-day fine against Nestor on Sept. 16 for failing to install fire doors on rooms and modify transoms over doors so that they contain wire-enforced glass and can't be opened. Those violations have not been corrected and the fine still is accumulating.

Nestor said she wants to delay renovations that might affect the building's status as a historic Sanford structure.

Nestor appealed to the commission on the grounds that the asphalt would harm large oak trees on her property.

Before voting on the motion, Commissioner Dave Farr said he wanted to make it clear that his vote in no way was an expression of support for the operation of the hotel.

Mayor Bettye Smith, who voted with Commissioner Bob Thomas against granting the exemption, said ''I feel very, very strongly that the people in this neighborhood have put up with enough already.''

The requirement of the sight-proof fence was added after Judy Sanders, 510 S. Oak Ave., complained that the grass in one corner of the hotel yard had not been mowed since July, that hotel guests drive across a sidewalk and park on her property.